Google Maps for iOS can now use your contacts—Google Contacts, that is

If you wanted to use your iPhone's contacts, Google’s going to keep you waiting.

Google Maps for iOS has been updated with some much-needed functionality that was missing from the original release. Version 1.1, available on the App Store on Tuesday, now allows users to search for addresses based on their Google Contacts if they choose to log into their Google accounts. Additionally, the app now allows users to search for general categories like "restaurants," "bars," "gas stations," and so on. Non-US users will also rejoice at the ability to choose between kilometers and miles for the app's distance estimates.

These features may not seem particularly exciting on their own, but their absence from the app's original release made Google Maps a bit less usable when compared against Apple's own native Maps. In particular, the inability to enter a contact's name and have an address come up was one of my main complaints about Google Maps when it was released in December, despite my overall love for the rest of the app.

However, Google Maps 1.1 still does not have the ability to use your iPhone's contact list for this purpose—the people you want to see must be in your Google Contacts. Though the reasoning for this distinction seems obvious (Google would like to keep you using as many of its own services as possible), it doesn't do any favors for people when it comes to ease-of-use. In this sense, plenty of iOS users who may not be completely satisfied with Apple Maps may still stick with it simply because of the integration.

And, as pointed out by Rob Pegoraro, version 1.1 of Google Maps also doesn't give you access to the bicycling directions that you can otherwise get through the website or Android. Here's hoping Google decides to become contact-list-agnostic in a future version of the app, and adds a little cycling love to boot.

56 Reader Comments

Can one at least sync their existing Contacts up to Google in some way? Since I use Google as my Contacts list on my various devices, this isn't a huge issue for me. I've never tried to go the other way from native iOS up to Google, though.

Can one at least sync their existing Contacts up to Google in some way? Since I use Google as my Contacts list on my various devices, this isn't a huge issue for me. I've never tried to go the other way from native iOS up to Google, though.

Yes; I sync my Google contacts with my iPhone, so that limitation will have virtually no effect on me.

Where the FSCK is "My Places"? >_<I don't understand why Google is half-assing their maps app so much. The only thing that makes sense to me is that they are trying to keep a distinction with Android while still competing with Apple's new maps app.So frickin' annoying.

Where the FSCK is "My Places"? >_<I don't understand why Google is half-assing their maps app so much. The only thing that makes sense to me is that they are trying to keep a distinction with Android while still competing with Apple's new maps app.So frickin' annoying.

it's quite likely that they are doing just that. they want iPhone users to start experimenting with modern Android, and perhaps even switch to it. Giving just a taste of the full mapping experience is one way to resign iPhone users to the fact that they don't have the best mapping experience, so they'll give other options a try.

Whether this is a reputable tactic or not, that's up for debate. I personally see it to be business as usual.

If Google doesn't force you to log onto your Google account (instead of allowing you to quickly input addresses by using the OS's existing contact list) then how can they track your every move like some sort of creepy stalker?

Maybe now that they've figured out how to access Google Contacts from a map app, they can bring that obvious feature to the web version of Google Maps?

People have been griping about this for years. It's utterly ridiculous that when you type in the name of a contact into the Maps search bar on the web page that it doesn't give you the address from your contact list. What are they waiting for?

Where the FSCK is "My Places"? >_<I don't understand why Google is half-assing their maps app so much. The only thing that makes sense to me is that they are trying to keep a distinction with Android while still competing with Apple's new maps app.So frickin' annoying.

No kidding. I want to be able to look up my "My Places" and search history from my gmap searches I've done on my computer. I'm still using my iPhone 3GS, so it's not like I'm going to be upgrading smart phones (iOS or Android or otherwise) anytime soon. So to me, it makes no difference what Google wants to do from a business perspective.

Where the FSCK is "My Places"? >_<I don't undzerstand why Google is half-assing their maps app so much. The only thing that makes sense to me is that they are trying to keep a distinction with Android while still competing with Apple's new maps app.So frickin' annoying.

it's quite likely that they are doing just that. they want iPhone users to start experimenting with modern Android, and perhaps even switch to it. Giving just a taste of the full mapping experience is one way to resign iPhone users to the fact that they don't have the best mapping experience, so they'll give other options a try.

Whether this is a reputable tactic or not, that's up for debate. I personally see it to be business as usual.

They won't let you use your own contacts because they can't sell that data to their customers. We should be used to that by now. So they force you to use contacts that are out of Apple's control whose info they can sell. We should be used to that tactic by now. They don't give Apple a renewal of their YouTube license so that they can come out with an Ad sponsored version. They don't give Apple the use of certain information, or a GPS driving utility from their maps, so Apple has to come out with their own, etc.

As long as we keep in mind that Google is an Ad placement company that places Ads within their own products, then it becomes easy to understand.

Where the FSCK is "My Places"? >_<I don't understand why Google is half-assing their maps app so much. The only thing that makes sense to me is that they are trying to keep a distinction with Android while still competing with Apple's new maps app.So frickin' annoying.

it's quite likely that they are doing just that. they want iPhone users to start experimenting with modern Android, and perhaps even switch to it. Giving just a taste of the full mapping experience is one way to resign iPhone users to the fact that they don't have the best mapping experience, so they'll give other options a try.

Whether this is a reputable tactic or not, that's up for debate. I personally see it to be business as usual.

As an iOS user who has used modern Android, I hope they figure out soon that this kind of thing, assuming they are indeed doing this, won't make me move to Android. I may move to Windows Phone, but for me until there are some significant performance increases, or at least capable hardware used as a default in non tablet sized devices, I will not switch to Android.

Google is now a very closed platform...chrome os and other rapidly closing doors like google's apps on iOS are overt clues to this.

Google users can no longer access their* data,even local data, unless they upload it to google...after which they can only access their data through one of google's non-standard portals and with google's permission. Sorry windows phone users, your* google data is not available to you because google doesn't want you using windows phone. Turns out Google doesn't want you using an iPhone either...shocking, I know. Google wants users to be on Android; where Google ensures it has unbridled access to every bit of the user's* data.

*implies the user no longer has a claim to data uploaded to/gleaned by google; even in the case of account termination by either party. Google may, but not necessarily, allow users to retain a copy of, now, google's data.

I like GOOGLE CONTACTS, particularly the Group tags to associate groups of contacts for mailing purposes. However, even after syncing my contacts to my iPhone, I don't have access to those groups on my phone.

Why aren't those groups accessible in even the GMAIL App? Come on, Google, that can't be too hard!

No kidding. I want to be able to look up my "My Places" and search history from my gmap searches I've done on my computer. I'm still using my iPhone 3GS, so it's not like I'm going to be upgrading smart phones (iOS or Android or otherwise) anytime soon. So to me, it makes no difference what Google wants to do from a business perspective.

You are probably in the minority, most others with a phone that old is probably very much in the market right about now.

*troll alert*BTW, if you had a real phone instead of an iPhone, you wouldn't _need_ to look up search history. Google Now would have the directions ready for you when you picked up your phone on the way out. ;p

*ducks*

(That is, if your phone actually had Jelly Bean, which it probably wouldn't if it was as old as your 3GS... Or a 4... Or a 4S. But I'll _NEVER_ let reality get in the way of a good troll )

They still haven't fixed the most annoying part of Google Maps on iOS, no search/direction history! I don't want to have to save every single search I perform in maps to my saved places in order to navigate back to them later.

I'm still using my iPhone 3GS, so it's not like I'm going to be upgrading smart phones (iOS or Android or otherwise) anytime soon.

I would think that as a 3GS user, a phone upgrade within the next year or two would actually be much more likely than a user with, say, a shiny new iPhone 5. I don't know how cash-strapped you are, but you could get a much more modern phone than a 3GS for peanuts--as long as you don't require the very latest and greatest, which clearly you don't.

No, but the iPhone app does stretch to fill the iPad screen. This one is more of a philosophical thing- Google believes deep down inside that tablets should either use the web, or use the same apps as phones via an auto layout stretching process. Apple believes that tablets apps should be fundamentally rethought from their phone version, with unique UI elements and expanded functionality, although they offer auto layout when necessary. It looks like Google will be pushing their vision hard in this instance. My bet is the users will side with Apple and Google's influence on iOS will fade with time as Apple maps improves.

They won't let you use your own contacts because they can't sell that data to their customers. We should be used to that by now. So they force you to use contacts that are out of Apple's control whose info they can sell. We should be used to that tactic by now. They don't give Apple a renewal of their YouTube license so that they can come out with an Ad sponsored version. They don't give Apple the use of certain information, or a GPS driving utility from their maps, so Apple has to come out with their own, etc.

No, but the iPhone app does stretch to fill the iPad screen. This one is more of a philosophical thing- Google believes deep down inside that tablets should either use the web, or use the same apps as phones via an auto layout stretching process. Apple believes that tablets apps should be fundamentally rethought from their phone version, with unique UI elements and expanded functionality, although they offer auto layout when necessary. It looks like Google will be pushing their vision hard in this instance. My bet is the users will side with Apple and Google's influence on iOS will fade with time as Apple maps improves.

Google users can no longer access their* data,even local data, unless they upload it to google...after which they can only access their data through one of google's non-standard portals and with google's permission.

That's quite simply bullshit. Google allows you to download your data at any time. Accessible in your Account settings area, this URL will take you to where that may be done: https://www.google.com/settings/exportdata. This is trivially available information for anyone who wants to know.

Where the FSCK is "My Places"? >_<I don't understand why Google is half-assing their maps app so much. The only thing that makes sense to me is that they are trying to keep a distinction with Android while still competing with Apple's new maps app.So frickin' annoying.

*implies the user no longer has a claim to data uploaded to/gleaned by google; even in the case of account termination by either party. Google may, but not necessarily, allow users to retain a copy of, now, google's data.

User experience are clearly being ignored in the corporate fight between Apple and Google. Both companies are using their lock-in mechanisms to keep the other company from providing obvious features, and the user is the one losing.

I for one waited until Google provided their maps app before upgrading to iOS 6, yet when I finally got the Google maps app, I find they had removed the ability to store an address found using their app to my iPhone contacts list. It makes no sense not to be able to store an address directly to the iPhone. This is a very basic function. To force me to use Google Contacts instead makes my experience worse when using the Google app verses the Apple app. So I don't use the Google app nor the Apple app anymore. I have a different solution.

I personally am tired of being forced to make do with deliberately hobbled apps just because Apple or Google wants to "own" my every action. I would encourage all iPhone and iPad users to search for alternative methods to doing the things you want to do when you get caught up in situations like this. It's past time that we take control of the experience.

Google is now a very closed platform...chrome os and other rapidly closing doors like google's apps on iOS are overt clues to this.

Google users can no longer access their* data,even local data, unless they upload it to google...after which they can only access their data through one of google's non-standard portals and with google's permission. Sorry windows phone users, your* google data is not available to you because google doesn't want you using windows phone. Turns out Google doesn't want you using an iPhone either...shocking, I know. Google wants users to be on Android; where Google ensures it has unbridled access to every bit of the user's* data.

*implies the user no longer has a claim to data uploaded to/gleaned by google; even in the case of account termination by either party. Google may, but not necessarily, allow users to retain a copy of, now, google's data.

While I'm under no illusions about Google's business model, this is a bit much. In general I prefer Linux because of the control over my own computing experience it gives me, and even on mobile I'm eagerly waiting to see if Ubuntu or Firefox can mature their offerings to consider switching away from Android, but things are nowhere as dire as you say.

Google does benefit from user data, that's essentially why they offer so many products for no cost, GMail, Maps, Android, etc. That's what their business model is built on. But they would not have achieved such goodwill if it were not for some basic fundamentals they get right.

Their Data Liberation Front tool means that while you may be locked in their services because they're functionally better than anyone elses, it's certainly NOT because your data is now theirs and you'd have to lose everything to switch over. Their web transparency report and policies gives some peace of mind that although they'll work within the law and comply with legal requests, they won't roll over at the drop of a hat like how some tech companies have shown themselves to act. Some basic 'red flags' like Facebook's attitude to privacy and sharing have been sidestepped by Google+, and the privacy and sharing tools on offer generally are miles ahead of Facebook in general.

I get annoyed frequently when people imply that using Google's services means that you either don't care about their business model or you're a clueless sheep. No, actually, people can be well aware of their business model but two major factors grant Google enough goodwill to succeed, firstly the unavoidable fact that many of their products are best-in-class, and secondly, most relevant to the post above, the tools offered and policies in place are far ahead of comparable companies. They will never be perfect from a consumer standpoint because they are essentially a business, but as long as they maintain their goodwill instead of frittering it away or making major missteps, they'll give intelligent reasonable people reason to trust them -enough- to use their products.

Yes; I sync my Google contacts with my iPhone, so that limitation will have virtually no effect on me.

I have not synced my Google contacts in years. I kept getting duplicate entries in one or the other and certain fields never got the data right. I may have lost some contacts too.

Google also did not allow me to properly designate a contact as a business a the time.

Has Google contacts and sync improved much in the last few years or is it just as buggy?

I've drank the Kool-Aid and I'm 100% Google contacts on the iPhone w/ ActiveSync (before they turned that off). I thought my thousands of contacts in Google would make it too onerous to do this but it's worked out okay as it's only the guys who have phone numbers (who I would really only talk to anyway) that show up in my contact lists.

Where the FSCK is "My Places"? >_<I don't understand why Google is half-assing their maps app so much. The only thing that makes sense to me is that they are trying to keep a distinction with Android while still competing with Apple's new maps app.So frickin' annoying.

What in the world is My Places? After googling it, it seems kind of useful (though Android, at least, will just let you see previous maps.google.com desktop searches if you're logged in, and that's all I'd probably use it for), but why would they use a feature that 98% of people have probably never heard of before as a "distinction" between maps on Android and Apple. Do you *really* imagine someone walking into an AT&T store or whatever and asking if the phone they're being sold supports My Places of all things?

I get that not having the feature you like is annoying, but some the theories in this thread are a bit much (and the quoted post is on the saner end).

No, but the iPhone app does stretch to fill the iPad screen. This one is more of a philosophical thing- Google believes deep down inside that tablets should either use the web, or use the same apps as phones via an auto layout stretching process. Apple believes that tablets apps should be fundamentally rethought from their phone version, with unique UI elements and expanded functionality, although they offer auto layout when necessary. It looks like Google will be pushing their vision hard in this instance. My bet is the users will side with Apple and Google's influence on iOS will fade with time as Apple maps improves.

Why do you suppose that is? My guess is that in the case of Gmail, they realized there was no chance in hell that any iPad users were going to use their webmail when mail.app and other local apps were available. In the case of Maps, they might be tempted to believe that going in through the browser is good enough. After all, you can hardly tell the difference between Maps in Safari and the iPhone Maps app. That said, it isn't good enough. When you are used to Apple Maps, the web interface maps is pretty jarring the way it is constantly getting blurry as you zoom in and then constantly redrawing itself. And something about it makes it seem fuzzy even when it has just redrawn. In the short term, people who are bothered by the inaccuracies of Apple maps will still use it, but longer term Google has to step it up a notch.

Btw- I get why Google has a maps app- they want your map searches going through them- but why on earth does it have a Gmail app? Everyone would still use Gmail, just via mail.app or another app or the web, and their app was widely panned in reviews, so why bother? Do they somehow make more money when people use it?

Isn't there a way to sync iOS contacts with Google? A friend of mine just went through that and said it worked pretty well.

I use CardDav and it works just fine. I can also use ActiveSync if I want but it has a tendency to swap some of the address fields around. I blame that on the ancient version of ActiveSync that Google uses though.

For duplicates, Google has a pretty good "find & merge duplicates" option. Run that and you'll find that most of your contacts are tidied up just fine.

I use CalDav for calendar syncing, the Gmail app for email (although I'm considering switching back to the iOS mail client) and GoTasks for tasks.

As was noted in the original review, there is a kludgy way to use your IOS contacts for Google Map directions. Set up the directions in Apple Maps but specify transit mode. Google Maps will appear as a choice (in my case, the first choice to supply transit directions. When you select it, your selections will transfer from Apple Maps. Change the mode to the one you prefer and you're off and running.

What makes this especially nice is that you can use Siri to set the Apple Map directions like this:Say, for example, "Guide me to my brother's home via transit" and you will be in a position to start Google Maps with the address selections in place.

Btw- I get why Google has a maps app- they want your map searches going through them- but why on earth does it have a Gmail app? Everyone would still use Gmail, just via mail.app or another app or the web, and their app was widely panned in reviews, so why bother? Do they somehow make more money when people use it?

Search and labelled emails tends to be much quicker and more reliable in the GMail app vs Mail.app and you're consistently logged in. GMail on mobile Chrome or Safari were a PITA especially with 2 factor auth turned on.

No kidding. I want to be able to look up my "My Places" and search history from my gmap searches I've done on my computer. I'm still using my iPhone 3GS, so it's not like I'm going to be upgrading smart phones (iOS or Android or otherwise) anytime soon. So to me, it makes no difference what Google wants to do from a business perspective.

You are probably in the minority, most others with a phone that old is probably very much in the market right about now.

*troll alert*BTW, if you had a real phone instead of an iPhone, you wouldn't _need_ to look up search history. Google Now would have the directions ready for you when you picked up your phone on the way out. ;p

*ducks*

(That is, if your phone actually had Jelly Bean, which it probably wouldn't if it was as old as your 3GS... Or a 4... Or a 4S. But I'll _NEVER_ let reality get in the way of a good troll )

I don't get the allure of Now's "auto directions". I commute to work. Why the hell would I want automatic directions? After the first day, I know how to get there.

Traffic and weather is fine, but there are plenty of apps that offer me location based alerts. I think Now and Siri are the future, but lets cut through the hype.

To enjoy googles services, I have to give all my info to them. Talk about open/closed. This is the ultimate walled garden. People talk about choice, but any of my apps can access my iOS contacts, etc. I have to live in Google to use google.

That's quite simply bullshit. Google allows you to download your data at any time. Accessible in your Account settings area, this URL will take you to where that may be done: https://www.google.com/settings/exportdata. This is trivially available information for anyone who wants to know.

Exactly my point: "Google allows you." It is bullshit that you can only access your data through google's hobbled channels. When/if you decide to use another service, google retains the data and its rights into perpetuity. Like you said, it will allow you to download a <i>copy</i> of some of google's data from google's servers; assuming your account is in good standing. While this <i>copy</i> is absolutely yours, the contents and <i>knowledge</i>of it (the names, phone #s, addresses, birthdays, all of your communications, etc.) is also google's - indefinitely. Google <i>may</i> choose to delete it, and they choose not to. Google maintains data on its active servers for at least 120 days after account *deletion* and then <i>may</i> choose to delete (they won't) any data deemed not worth keeping on the active servers. Google doesn't delete anything. They simply remove your ability to access it. Does this data, that you have no right to access after termination of your account, still seem like <i>your</i> data?

If I walked up to you on the street and offered you $10 for your contact list so I could resell it to advertisers, would you take it? $100? $1,000? $1,000,000? What about for additional, and constant, access to your GPS location (the parks you visit, where you work, your house, where your kids go to school), search history, google docs, e-mail, Google Talk logs, your Google Voice conversations, etc. for as long as you have that google account AND I get to keep the right to sell the data I collected while you had the account...how much would I have to pay you then?

I am in no way insinuating that data collection, even sales, practices are unique to google. However, google is one of the very, very few companies that has the financial capacity to store such vast amounts of data...and one of even fewer, of this scale, whose sole source of revenue is derived from selling the harvested user information to advertisers; which is fine, if it was the user's intention to give google, into perpetuity, sales rights to everything contained in their contact list, and everything you've ever done through google, in exchange for google's lackluster services.

Does google's "google contacts only" limitation seem like a good exchange, from a user standpoint, for being able to skip typing in a contact's address rather than accessing it locally? I'm arguing that users are not aware of the rights and information they are "exchanging"...especially when many web users, few, if any, here on ars, do not know what "browser" truly means.

If google's users are aware of the terms of the exchange they are making, then thats their choice and I recognize it as such. Plus, its nice of google, it really is, to let you have a "copy" of some of the data they collected from you (granted you're still in good standing); but why do I have to give them so much data to use gain the ability to type a name instead of a full address? Why do they need to know where my estranged cousin lives in order to navigate me to my friend's new apartment? Why can't I keep my data in a cloud service of my choice and only provide google with input from the local device as, and when, I see fit?

[Exactly my point: "Google allows you." It is bullshit that you can only access your data through google's hobbled channels.

Anything to back this?

mcdonaldd wrote:

When/if you decide to use another service, google retains the data and its rights into perpetuity. Like you said, it will allow you to download a <i>copy</i> of some of google's data from google's servers; assuming your account is in good standing. While this <i>copy</i> is absolutely yours, the contents and <i>knowledge</i>of it (the names, phone #s, addresses, birthdays, all of your communications, etc.) is also google's - indefinitely. Google <i>may</i> choose to delete it, and they choose not to.

Anything to back this?

mcdonaldd wrote:

Google maintains data on its active servers for at least 120 days after account *deletion* and then <i>may</i> choose to delete (they won't) any data deemed not worth keeping on the active servers. Google doesn't delete anything. They simply remove your ability to access it. Does this data, that you have no right to access after termination of your account, still seem like <i>your</i> data?

Anything to back this?

mcdonaldd wrote:

whose sole source of revenue is derived from selling the harvested user information to advertisers; which is fine, if it was the user's intention to give google, into perpetuity, sales rights to everything contained in their contact list, and everything you've ever done through google, in exchange for google's lackluster services.

Where the FSCK is "My Places"? >_<I don't understand why Google is half-assing their maps app so much. The only thing that makes sense to me is that they are trying to keep a distinction with Android while still competing with Apple's new maps app.So frickin' annoying.

it's quite likely that they are doing just that. they want iPhone users to start experimenting with modern Android, and perhaps even switch to it. Giving just a taste of the full mapping experience is one way to resign iPhone users to the fact that they don't have the best mapping experience, so they'll give other options a try.

Whether this is a reputable tactic or not, that's up for debate. I personally see it to be business as usual.

Business is business.

But i think that in the long run this might be bad for Google, since eventually, given time, Apple will likely improve their maps app then where will Google be? Their best option would be to give an amazing experience with their app for Apple users and then when Apple Maps becomes as good users will just say "So What?" Google already did that.

But then given the inability of Apple users to get a default app for Maps, once Apple does improve maps people are just going to go back to using Apple Maps even if Google Maps was awesome, since Apple Maps is default.

I have lots of contacts within Gmail (synced to the phone too - although I know it doesn't look locally) and I'm logged into the Google Maps app using my Google account credentials and yet when I start typing someones name, I'm presented with a list of roads in the area that start with that persons name!

Even if I type the road name of a contact, it still just lists a bunch of possible roads - there is no prioritisation (or even labeling) of the entry that matches someone in my Gmail contacts.

If Google really wanted to hobble iPhone users, they'd just not have an iPhone app and let Apple users stew in their shitty maps. "Use Android and have a working GPS map application, or use iOS and buy a Garmin!"

I'm sure there's some shitty business reason behind this, but guess what. No one forces you to use Google maps. If you don't want to, go right ahead and use something else.

There's a huge difference in philosophy that makes all the difference. Apple lets you do with your phone what they want you to do with their phone and nothing else, and you're damn happy about that. They're just keeping you safe (and taking their cut)!

Google lets you use their stuff, or someone else's, but if you're going to use theirs you use it their way. OH NO! HOW DARE THEY!

Don't use Google if you don't want to. Fork your own Android and pull all the shit out that connects to Google. Hell, put a different App store on your phone and don't give Google anything. All of that's something you can do (ok, most probably can't fork android but whatever) Can you put a different App store on your iPhone to avoid Apple? Didn't think so, at least without jailbreaking the thing.

And no, you don't have to unlock the Android phones to put a different appstore on them.

When you bought an iPhone, you self-selected to limit your options and let someone else tell you what to do and how to do it. Don't like that choice? That's your problem. Everyone else doesn't have to bow down to your whim just because you own an Apple product.

Maybe if Apple wasn't so quick to sue everyone and their brother, other companies would be more cooperative.